Inclusive Human Rights Reports Highlight Anti-Trans Abuses Worldwide

NCTE commends the US State Department’s annual human rights reports to Congress for highlighting severe and growing abuses against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people worldwide. The reports, which summarize human rights conditions in every country besides the US, are a critical tool for understanding and addressing the dire threats facing LGBT people in their daily lives in many parts of the world.

In the past, official US reporting of anti-trans violence, discrimination and other abuses has been very sparse. In contrast, the State Department’s 2010 reports – nearly all of which contain a section on “Societal Abuses, Discrimination and Acts of Violence Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity” – shine a light on abuses in dozens of countries, including the criminalization of gender non-conformity, banning of organizations, official neglect of nongovernmental hate violence, and often systemic abuse of transgender and gender non-conforming people by police and security forces.

NCTE applauds the President and the State Department for their forceful criticism of the proposed “kill the gays” bill in Uganda, and urges the Administration to address in an equally serious fashion the many other anti-LGBT abuses documented by the country reports, many of which involve US allies. NCTE also applauds the leadership of the Council for Global Equality, of which NCTE is a member, for their active leadership on the country reports and on ensuring that the human rights of LGBT people are a key part of a strong US human rights agenda.